The coronavirus health crisis has interfered with almost every part of daily human life, including what we eat.
In almost a year of social distancing, many people enjoy food forgotten or rejected by taste, sensation, or smell. Some have added healthy foods to their diets to strengthen the body’s natural defenses.
The home cooking activity is everywhere as a result of restrictions on restaurants and other food stores. People are increasingly exploring new food experiences in their own kitchens.
The joy of pears
Maeri Ferguson is a 31-year-old woman living in Brooklyn, New York. Last year he obtained COVID-19 and recovered. But the disease damaged his taste and smell for months. Many of her favorite foods no longer satisfy her.
Ferguson again feels sweet, salty and spicy, although many foods still don’t taste strong, but not pears. The fruit was not part of his pre-COVID diet.
“I knew the taste of a bad, unripe pear, but not a good one,” he said. Thanks to a gift from a friend, he set out to find a good example. It was one of the first foods he was able to taste again.
“I’m a complete convert,” Ferguson said. “I’ll never forget to chop a juicy red pear.”
Fermented foods
Fruits are simple pleasures. But fermented foods have also become popular. Fermented foods last a long time in the fridge, which is useful if you are going to buy food less often than before.
Anastasia Sharova, chef in Stuttgart, Germany, runs Happybellyfish.com. The company is an online cooking school that works on healthy foods. He added fermentation classes in late 2019. Then came the coronavirus crisis.
Suddenly, interest in making kimchi and sauerkraut, two types of fermented cabbage; and miso, the fermented soybean, rose sharply. Earlier, Kombucha, a fermented tea, had helped popularize fermented foods at home.
“Health became the number one of many last year,” Sharova said. He added that being at home caused many to discover cooking. He said fermenting things is like a community activity done by families or in online classes.
Thirty-year-old Alicia Harper has also discovered fermented foods. He is a nutritionist in New York City. At first he did not like the strong tastes and smells of fermented foods.
“Since I tried them again recently, my opinion has completely changed. Now I have come to love taste and smell, ”he said.
Anne Alderete of Los Angeles, California, now enjoys natto. Made from fermented soy, natto is popular in Japan, but is considered too unusual by many people.
“I’ve smelled it many times since I’m half Japanese and live in Tokyo after college for seven years,” the 47-year-old said. But he never liked to eat natto before COVID-19.
“It simply came to our notice then virtuous when I eat natto because the health benefits are many, but also because it has brought me closer to my roots, ”said Alderete.
Concerns and comforting foods
Some experts think that changes in our way of eating also come from having more time to consider information about how food gets to our tables.
Ryan Andrews is a dietitian who wrote a book on plant-based foods. Ryan is also an advisor to Precision Nutrition, which trains nutrition coaches. He said many people learn painful truths about the food system.
Andrews said: “People have learned about the unsafe working conditions of meat packaging plants, the unfair wages of agricultural workers.” He added that other problems include “diet-related diseases”, cruelty to farm animals and the cost of industrialized agriculture. “
At the same time, research firm Semrush has studied Google searches related to changing food interests during the COVID-19 crisis. Their conclusions suggest comfort food and some unusual combinations are still in people’s minds.
The company found a 17% increase in searches for “peanuts and coke” in December compared to December 2019. It found a 33% increase for “prosciutto and melon”. And he found a 95% jump in searches for “bacon and jam“.
A service called WoodSpoon uses technology to connect people who cook at home with people willing to pay for home-cooked food. The company is headquartered in New York. Its head, Oren Saar, spoke to the Associated Press. He suggested that before the health crisis there was a strong interest in healthy and less processed foods. Then, orders for breads, pastas and fatty meats increased.
“A challenging times like this, diners look authentic, homemade food, ”said Saar.
I’m Mario Ritter Jr.
And I’m Ashley Thompson.
Leanne Italie reported this story to the Associated Press. Mario Ritter Jr. has adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
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Words in this story
comfort –N. a state or feeling of not being worried, upset, or unhappy, free of pain
fermented –Adj. a chemical change in food (and some industrial materials) that changes the nature of food and often preserves it
jam –N. a sweet, sticky meal made with fruit and sugar
challenging –Adj. difficult
authentic –Adj. real, genuine
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